[Peace-discuss] Cartoon Network

[David Green]

According to this morning's DI (see below), the
editor-in-chief (who is Jewish and "pro-Israel") and
Opinions Editor (right-winger, and of course
"pro-Israel") decided to publish the cartoons last
week on their own, and so now there's an editorial
today by the rest of the board criticizing the way
they went about it.

I'm glad that the cartoons were published, otherwise
there would not be any momentum in this politically
correct, avoidant, and superficial academic
environment to debate the issues in context, which is
the context in which America and Israel occupy and
threaten Arab and Muslim countries at will, and Arab
leaders manipuate anti-Semitism of all kinds to
deflect attention from their own perfidy. But in order
to do that, you have to get beyond the notion that
this is an issue of free speech, which is what has so
far been promoted by the DI and in the mainstream
media. Nor do I think that it should necessarily be
seen as one of sensitivity to the feelings of an
oppressed minority (although speech that may place
them in physical danger is a possibility), but how
best to promote an intelligent conversation, if that
is possible.

There will be more letters tomorrow in the DI, I hope
including mine, but today there was only one, from the
leader of the Objectivist Club (Rebecca Knapp,
publisher of something called Undercurrent), the Ayn
Rand acolytes who combine a passion for "free speech"
with brutal capitalism and racism and warmongering of
the worst order. They have sponsored a horrible hate
speaker named Yaron Brook from the Ayn Rand Institute
in California a couple of times in past years, once
with the co-sponsorship of Illinipac, the pro-Israel
student group (Brook is Israeli). These events did not
draw criticism from local Jewish leaders, who were
saving their energy to criticize our hosting of
Palestinian Mazin Qumsiyeh last April.

Silent so far in all of this are the same leaders of
the local Jewish establishment, who would of course be
going ballistic and probably be occupying Daily Illini
offices by now if an anti-Semitic cartoon was directed
at Jews rather than Arabs. They know enough not to be
blatant hypocrites by defending the publication of
these cartoons, but they're reluctant to promote
"censorship" when it is not Jewish feelings that are
being offended. Nor do they really want to engage in a
discussion of American and Israeli behavior vis a vis
the Muslim world--just too much danger of the truth
being told. They probably just wish that this would
all blow over as quickly as possible. Fortunately, the
impetuous actions of the editors hasn't given them
that satisfaction. Thank goodness for youthfulness.

I think that in the coming days, we're going to learn
a lot about attitudes towards Arabs and Muslims in our
community, including through the News-Gazette.
_________________

DI Editorial, Monday, Feb. 13th:

In the Feb. 9 edition of The Daily Illini, Acton H.
Gorton, the paper's editor in chief, and Chuck
Prochaska, the paper's opinions editor, made the
decision to run six of the 12 anti-Islamic cartoons of
the prophet Muhammad that have outraged members of the
Muslim community since running in a Danish newspaper.

Gorton and Prochaska made the decision they should run
in this newspaper. This decision was made without the
knowledge of the Editorial Board, the editorial
adviser and the publisher of the paper. This decision
was made by two people behind the backs of those who
are being significantly affected by its fallout.

This newspaper prides itself on being a member of the
professional journalistic community. We value freedom
of the press, speech and expression. But we
acknowledge that in certain instances, such as the
publishing of these offensive cartoons, there are
issues that must be considered. 

The dialogue that Gorton and Prochaska supposedly
intended to be initiated certainly was not. People
have either criticized this decision or applauded it -
not so they could discuss these issues, but because no
one's mind is open to discussion. A number of letters
received by the opinions desk are evidence that, in
printing these cartoons in this manner, the prejudice
against Muslims in this country has not been combated,
but actually enhanced.

We want to make it clear that while we do not
necessarily disagree with the decision to print these
cartoons, we disagree with how they were run. There
was a tactful way to do this, and it is unfortunate it
was not run in that manner.

This situation was bad enough, but Gorton tried to
make it worse by writing yet another hasty column. He
also brought in Humair Sabir to write the reaction in
the Muslim community. With all due respect to Sabir,
he has been friends with Gorton for one-and-a-half
years, and one of the primary pillars of journalism is
to NEVER interview one's friends. This newspaper is
appalled that Gorton would even consider using his
friend in the newspaper as a voice for the Muslim
community. To actually do it is beyond embarrassment. 

This has been an unfortunate situation that was
initiated because of the callous bravado of a renegade
editor in chief who firmly believes that his will is
also the will of the paper. Even to this day, he still
does not believe the way he handled this situation was
a mistake. He believes that consulting just a few
people was an appropriate way to handle this
situation.

In addition to this, Gorton and Prochaska ruined the
editorial that ran on that same page.

That editorial was the view of the entire editorial
board of this newspaper and its message was tarnished
by this thoroughly underhanded decision. It was meant
to explain that The Daily Illini puts a great deal of
pride in covering local news that affects our campus
and community. It came off as an arrogant defying of
authority.

In the end, Gorton and Prochaska have handled this
whole situation poorly. The Daily Illini does not
stand with these members of the newspaper, and will
not stand with these members of the newspaper, until
they fully understand the complexity of this
situation.

The Daily Illini has been embarrassed by the blatant
abuse of power by both the editor in chief and the
opinions editor. We apologize to the Muslim community
as well as the rest of our readership for Gorton's and
Prochaska's actions.


__________________________________________________
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